rather than pick out individual stocks to trade, it can often be worthwhile to trade the indices themselves, especially in times of high volatility.

for those so inclined, i attach below charts for FTSE and FTSE 250, though one might equally be tempted to trade Dow or S&P, which is significantly broader in its coverage, or even NASDAQ

for ease of reading, i have attached 1 year and 3 month charts in each instance

German 10-y Bond Auction 1.31|1.5 previous 1.52|1.4

I guess this caused the spike @9:15.

India :- Industrial production grows at 2.4% in May

NEW DELHI: Country's industrial production grew at a higher-than-expected pace of 2.4 per cent in May driven by manufacturing output, government data showed on Thursday.

Analysts had expected a rise of 1.8 per cent in May output, a Reuters poll showed.

The May figure compares with revised figures that showed an annual contraction of 0.9 per cent a month ago.

dow has taken it's customary dip on bernake's speech, albeit that it was as expected ..... i dare say some were actually hoping for more qe against the odds

Bernanke says Fed prepared to do more to boost jobs

WASHINGTON | Tue Jul 17, 2012 3:46pm BST
(Reuters) - The Federal Reserve stands ready to offer additional monetary support to a U.S. economy that has slowed significantly in recent months, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told lawmakers on Tuesday.

He told the Senate Banking Committee the recovery was being held back by tighter financial conditions due to Europe's debt crisis and uncertainty surrounding U.S. fiscal policy.

Financial markets had looked forward to Bernanke's testimony for any signs the central bank was moving closer to a third round of bond purchases to support the economy. But the Fed chief hewed closely to the message of watchful waiting that the central bank's policy panel delivered in June, and yielded few new clues.

GBP Claimant Count Change 6.1K consensus 6.2K previous 8.1K

GBP Unemployment Rate 8.1% consensus 8.2% previous 8.2%

Wait for it - you know who is speaking @3pm.

Ben not having his usual effect on the market today. Have they turned his mic on!

DOW through 12,900 - maybe 13,000 tonight?

momentum through 13005 is the key ...... odds must surely be a pullback before that.

GBP Retail Sales m/m 0.1% consensus 0.6% previous 1.5%

USD Unemployment Claims 386K consensus 367K previous 350K

Spain sells 3 billion euros of bonds, yields hit new highs

MADRID | Thu Jul 19, 2012 2:28pm BST
(Reuters) - Spain's Treasury sold 3 billion euros (2.35 billion pounds) of medium-term debt on Thursday, at the top end of its target amount, but paid euro-era record yields on the five year paper as investors remain unconvinced by austerity measures and growth prospects.

Spain had aimed to sell between 2 billion and 3 billion euros of the debt.

The Treasury sold 1.4 billion euros worth of bonds maturing October 31, 2014 with a 3.3 percent coupon, at an average yield of 5.204 percent compared to 4.335 percent last month, at a bid-to-cover ratio of 1.9 after 4.3 previously.

USD Existing Home Sales 4.37M consensus 4.64M previous 4.55M

USD Philly Fed Manufacturing Index -12.9 consensus -7.9 previous -16.6

USD CB Leading Index m/m -0.3% consensus -0.1% previous 0.3%

dow possibly blinking at 13005 level and shying away for now ..... tomorrow being friday could be interesting

Yes - not much in the way of big figures out tomorrow - GB Public Sector Net Borrowing and Canadian CPI being the main ones.

hairy scary week, but all things considered, has finished pretty well for me

GBP Public Sector Net Borrowing 12.1B consensus 11.8B previous 15.6B

greece and spain resume their roles as serial party-poopers with the market being hammered from the off ...... de facto, this will trigger a lot of forced sales and similar ..... let's hope a bit of sanity quickly returns

as an aside, for i know that few of you hold stocks in usa, but AAPL could be a good bet today ..... AAPL numbers are due out imminently and will almost certainly be very good ..... at friday's close, they were already about 5% off their high of a few months ago, and general market malaise is likely to see them weaken again, at least at the open

i knew the markets would be bashed today, but did not expect it to be quite so brutal .... very dull